Denmark still fighting over the euro

Denmark’s finance minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, has lashed out at senior bankers in his country for their negative attitude towards Denmark joining the euro single European currency.

Rasmussen’s comments come on the same day that Slovakia was confirmed as the 16th country to enter the currency on 1st January 2009.

Danish citizens have twice voted to keep the country out of the Eurozone, but the currency rate and the central bank’s base rate are tied to those of the euro and the European Central Bank.

Several prominent bankers have said that even this is a step too far and that Denmark would do best totally outside the European monetary framework. Rasmussen describes these comments as “dangerous”.

“If you begin to send signals that Denmark could consider altering is fixed exchange rate policy, you are also sending signals to international currency markets that our monetary policy isn’t unconditionally tied to the European Central Bank’s, and that could lead to turbulence in the markets,” he said.